Keep in mind What the Dormouse Mentioned: Protected Rodents Cease Building of Nord Stream’s Rival Pipeline in Denmark

Surroundings

10:48 GMT 6/4/2021 (updated 10:55 GMT 6/4/2021) Get short url

The 210-kilometer Baltic Pipe, with an estimated cost of up to 2.6 billion US dollars, was intended to connect Danish and Polish gas consumers with Norwegian gas fields in the North Sea.

The Danish Environment and Food Complaints Office has rejected the previously granted environmental permit for the Baltic Pipe project.

It emerged that the 210-kilometer pipeline, previously given the green light by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency in July 2019 and scheduled to go into operation in October 2022, threatens the habitats and breeding areas of several protected species of mice (including hazel dormouse and birch mouse) as well Bats. Both agencies work under the auspices of the Danish Ministry of the Environment.

“We are very sad about the decision. When we received the official environmental permit for the Baltic Pipe in 2019, it was determined that we would continue to work on remedial measures, including hazel dormice, birch mice and bats that live in some places where the Baltic Pipe pipeline should run. We have since worked on a number of animal protection measures. But the appellate body says that all measures should have been fully clarified before the environmental permit was granted, “said Marian Kaagh, deputy director and head of the construction projects department at Danish energy company Energinet.

Energinet will now clarify the consequences of the decision for the Baltic Pipe project together with the authorities, but is in the process of suspending the construction work until the necessary permits have been obtained.

“Baltic Pipe is a major construction project crossing Denmark and it cannot avoid causing inconvenience, but we are fully focused on laying the gas pipeline as gently as possible for people and nature, including ensuring good living conditions for sheltered ones Species that may be affected along the way, “said Marian Kaagh, promising updates on the project status as soon as more clarity is established.

The Baltic Pipe project is a collaboration between Energinet and the Polish transmission company Gas-System. The gas pipeline was intended to connect Danish and Polish gas consumers with Norwegian gas fields in the North Sea.

The gas pipeline was to extend across the Danish regions of West Jutland and South Jutland to the islands of Funen and South Zealand.

The total cost of the Baltic Pipe was estimated at 12-16 billion DKK (2-2.6 billion USD).

Warsaw is eagerly promoting the project as a replacement for the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 project, which Poland actively opposes.